Ahmed Abdullah

1997 found me attempting to write a memoir of my life in music, including my work with the great bandleader, pianist, composer, and arranger Sun Ra. I soon realized that I was a bit out of my element in the writing world and could use some help. A phone call to Amiri Baraka yielded the suggestion, among other bits of advice, that I contact Louis Reyes Rivera. I recognized the name and had, in fact, seen Louis perform impressively five years earlier
at Birdland (the second) on 106th Street and Broadway.

I don’t think you could find any two artists more cosmically in tune than Louis and me. It began with his being a mentor directing me through an understanding of the English language that I’m sure was the equivalent of a
Master’s degree. As we worked on the manuscript –titled “Traveling the Spaceways, A Strange Celestial Road”–Louis meticulously appraised the writing I produced, giving me suggestions for revision. It was through that process that we became real friends and bonded as brothers through both the written word and music. We sat out in front of Sistas’ Place, a coffee house in Bedford-Stuyvesant that has become a highly regarded cultural institution, and exchanged ideas and related experiences for hours
at a time.

My work with Louis allowed for real cross-pollination. I worked with his Jazzoets ensemble, a group of accomplished musicians who performed at Sistas’ Place on the first and third Sundays of each month. In turn, Louis performed in my group Diaspora. The name is an acronym for “Dispersions of the Spirit of Ra.” In addition, Louis began editing Sun Ra’s poetry for presentation at concerts.

In 1999, based on discussions between Louis and me, along with Viola Plummer, an activist and founder of Sistas’ Place, we organized a series of open forums among poets, musicians, visual artists, and the community called Conversations, which were held immediately prior to Jazzoets performances. The Conversations series had two primary goals. One was to introduce the artists who would be performing at Sistas’ to the community, and the other was to get more people to attend the Jazzoets performances. Both goals were realized. With Louis’ presence, we brought some of the most advanced poets into Sistas’ Place.

Eventually, we added to our programming a series titled Satellites of the Sun. Its purpose was to feature former and current members of the Sun Ra Arkestra as leaders of their own groups, sometimes playing Sun Ra’s music
and sometimes playing their own. During the second year of Satellites, trombonist and visual artist Dick Griffin brought his band. With him was vocalist Lil Phillips, who had gone to City College with Louis. She impressed the audience so much that we booked her to return in March of 2001 with her trio, which included her husband and bassist/composer James Phillips. Enchanted with the environment, the Phillips couple immortalized Sistas’ Place in song. At the suggestion of my wife Monique Ngozi Nri,
who is also a poet, we began to play the song before every show.

By 2002, Louis had become a producer on the local radio station WBAI, where his presence would ensure that Cultural Warriors and Revolutionary Artists would have a voice on his program Perspective. He often focused attention on Sistas’ Place. He even made me a co-host.

Over time, Louis and I considered that what we were achieving culturally, particularly at Sistas’ Place, required specific language to distinguish it from other initiatives. We wanted to give this music a 21st Century definition. During the writing of my memoir, I found myself using the phrase “Jazz: A Music of the Spirit” as a descriptive of the music that defied categorization. By 2006, Louis, Monique, and I had developed a paper in this vein, which we posted on the Sistas’ Place website as well as my own.

Ultimately, I know that all of the work that Louis and I did together from 1997 until he left the planet in 2012 had an influence on this epic poem, Jazz in Jail. We were able to present Jazz in Jail as a work in progress at Sistas’ Place with music created by Dr. Salim Washington. Louis was at the height of his creative powers during those sessions, and the merger of poetry and music, one of his signature achievements, was on brilliant display. As a written text, Jazz in Jail places Louis with great and immortal contemporaries such as Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, and Sekou Sundiata, all of whom produced enduring works that are tributes to the interplay between poetry and this art form we call “Jazz: A Music of the Spirit.” Louis knew this was some of his best work. He knew he had conceived a masterpiece. It was a privilege to witness and be a part of the process.